5 Easy Ways to Fund Your First Website When You Have No Money

You have decided you don’t want to be involved in the 9 to 5, so you want to start your own online business. Anyone who has a bit of ambition and “stick-to-itiveness” can succeed and many who have a lot of money to invest, can take off very quickly at the start.

But all your money goes to taking care of yourself, keeping a roof over you and your family, and food on the table. So, what can you do? First, don’t despair. It can be done; it just takes an initial investment of time, but it will pay off. So consequentially, you need patience. We know that in today’s “instant everything” age, patience can be hard to come by, but is truly essential for success. So, let’s get started.

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The first step is to build your website or your blog. There are many websites that you can visit to learn how to build either. (For a website go here, for a blog go here.)

You have your website or blog built and ready for publishing and/ or promotion. You are either selling original products or a service. The next step is to get your blog or website circulating around the world wide web, and let the world know you are here. Although it might seem like screaming into the wind, it’s much easier.

Start with Friends and Family – Now, we aren’t suggesting that you harass your friends and family all the time with emails and conversations about pushing your product or service every time you see them. BE CAREFUL—you can cause people to ignore you and you’ll lose friends and family faster than you’ll gain the help you need.

CONTACT FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Start with utilizing whatever means you normally contact them and ask them to check out your website or blog. If you are offering a freebie (more about that later), let them in on it, so they can offer constructive critique. Let them know you value their opinions, and that you want them to be honest. Ask them if they would be happy or proud to share your site or if they would they feel embarrassed. Don’t be satisfied with a pat on the back; ask them if they see any weaknesses.

If they are happy to share it, then ask them to do so on their favorite social media platform. Allow some time to pass before asking them about it again. If they bring it up to you, then great—talk it up, but avoid being a pest.

Crowdfunding– Indiegogo, Kickstarter, and Patreon are great ways to get recognition and funding. Each one attracts different types of projects. Here’s a very general list:

Indiegogo – any type of project: an idea, an invention, or an artistic endeavor. They have no specific specialty – all are welcome.

Kickstarter – emerging artists and creative inventors – everything from video games to photography projects to cool new gadgets.

Patreon – specifically for artists, in any creative field. The unique thing about Patreon is that you can provide your supporters with a look into your studio, your creative process, and special blogs just for them.

There are many, but these are the top three that require no money down to get started. They each charge a small fee from your earnings.

Giving Assistant – to save money, so that you can use your savings to fund your website. While this isn’t directly related to earning on your website, you probably like to shop online. If you become a member of Giving Assistant, you will receive cash back on purchases made on over 3000 different websites. Then you can use that cash back to help fund some additional money-making endeavors on your website.

As your business grows, you can benefit by savings on any business-related purchases with special discounts and cash back. And even better, you can name a charitable organization of your choice and Giving Assistant will provide them with a percentage or all of your cash back.

Go to Giving Assistantand click on the large, orange “JOIN” button to start saving while shopping online. Add the extension called The Button, which will automatically populate any available coupon codes while you are shopping on one of the Giving Assistant ’s supported sites.

Social Media – FaceBook, Google +, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube – these are the big 5 and they have contributed to the success of many startups. Of course, each has its own unique benefits.

USE SOCIAL MEDIA

FaceBook is a giant community with many great options for spreading the word about your product or service. You set up a business page as an off-shoot of your personal page. You can do FaceBook Live events to promote your product or offer a free seminar. You can also create private groups to help promote your product or as an extension of the service you are offering. Or you may want to simply use it for sharing and having friends share for you, so their friends can see it, and so on.

Google + works in conjunction with your other Google-related products, such as Gmail, Drive, and so on. You can use Google + to blog about your products and to link to your website. Your friends, contacts, and potential customers can connect with you through Google +. It’s an easy way to chat if you keep your Gmail open all day.

Twitter is a quick and easy means of spreading the word about what you do, what you offer, and sharing links to your latest blog or newest product. You can also add images, but it allows for that super quick “tweet” to let people know what you are up to.

Instagram is all about images. So, if you have interesting artwork or any kind of creative work to show, Instagram is the best way to do that. After all, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Just post your images and add a short caption. Be sure that your blog or your web address appears in your posts, so people can connect with you and pay your website or blog a visit.

YouTube is also a member of the Google family of social media. Youtube is to video as what Instagram is to images. You can create videos, slide presentations, PowerPoint presentations, animations and upload them to YouTube after you have created your own channel. Then, users can subscribe to your channel to stay up to date on whatever you are up to. You can also provide the link to your website or blog to increase traffic.

Offer something for free – Everyone wants to feel like they are getting a great deal, and FREE is the best deal anyone can get.

For example, promoting a webinar that shows you 10 easy ways to be successful for FREE is a surefire way to capture your interest, provide you with some helpful advice, and lead you to a website. You can also use this method by offering free video lessons, free coupon codes, free product samples, and so on.

Even if your visitors don’t care to participate, they may forward your info along to someone they know. Be sure to read up on current regulations concerning offering an unsubscribe option at the bottom of all your emails, if you choose to use email as a marketing/ promotion method.